A dynastic dive into opioids

Book review of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

What’s in a name? Apparently plenty for the members of the Sackler family, who plastered their surname on prestigious galleries and institutions while taking care to keep the source of their riches under wraps.

For years, their company Purdue Pharma had been in the news for creating OxyContin — the powerful painkiller whose introduction in 1996 ushered in a new era of both pain management and opioid addiction — while the Sackler name remained better known for philanthropy than for pharmaceuticals. “I don’t believe Purdue has a legal responsibility,” one family member insisted in a deposition two years ago, when asked